Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
---|---|
Founded | 2001 |
Festival date | October 20–27, 2021 |
Website | www |
Reelworld Film Festival, founded in 2001 by Tonya Williams, is held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [1] The festival screens film and provides professional development for Canadian racially diverse and indigenous filmmakers and media artists. [2]
Reelworld was founded by Tonya Williams, who noted the lack of opportunities for minorities to break into the film industry. [3] The festival's mandate states that they showcase diverse work from Canada and abroad while bringing together assorted communities.
Reelworld has started a number of initiatives directed towards diverse artists. In 2020 Williams launched Access Reelworld, a casting database to help publicize and promote minority actors. [4]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, the 2020 festival was presented entirely online. [5]
In 2024, Williams was named the recipient of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television's Changemaker Award at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards, for her work with Reelworld. [6]
The 21st annual ReelWorld Film Festival was held from October 20 to 27, 2021 in Toronto.
Award | Winner | Ref |
---|---|---|
Outstanding Feature Film Award | In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland (Brishkay Ahmed) | |
Outstanding Feature Film Director | Kaveh Nabatian, Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | |
Outstanding Feature Film Writer | Kaveh Nabatian and Pablo D. Herrera Veitia, Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | |
Outstanding Feature Film Producer | Brishkay Ahmed, In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actor | Yonah Acosta Gonzales, Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actress | Aki Yaghoubi, Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | |
Outstanding Feature Film Cinematographer | Juan Pablo Ramirez, Without Havana (Sin la Habana) |
The 22nd annual ReelWorld Film Festival was held from October 11 to 17, 2022 in Toronto. [7]
Award | Winner | Ref |
---|---|---|
Outstanding Feature Film Award | Golden Delicious (Jason Karman) | [8] |
Outstanding Feature Film Director | Jason Karman, Golden Delicious | |
Outstanding Feature Film Writer | Gorrman Lee, Golden Delicious | |
Outstanding Feature Film Producer | Ivan Madeira, Pattern | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actor | Cardi Wong, Golden Delicious | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actress | Jayne Kamara, Bite of a Mango | |
Outstanding Feature Film Cinematographer | Kaveh Nabatian, Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones | |
Audience Choice Award | Ron Dias and Joanne Jansen, Bite of a Mango |
The 23rd annual ReelWorld Film Festival was held from November 1 to 7, 2023 in Toronto.
Award | Winner | Ref |
---|---|---|
Outstanding Feature Film Award | Kim Albright, With Love and a Major Organ | [9] |
Outstanding Feature Film Director | Jamila Pomeroy, Union Street | |
Outstanding Feature Film Writer | Lonzo Nzekwe, Orah | |
Outstanding Feature Film Producer | Gavin Baird, A Storm Blows Over | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actor | Hamza Haq, With Love and a Major Organ | |
Outstanding Feature Film Actress | Oyin Oladejo, Orah | |
Outstanding Feature Film Cinematographer | Leo Harim Miranda, With Love and a Major Organ |
The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.
Tonya Williams is a Canadian actress, producer, and activist. Sometimes credited as Tonya Lee Williams, she is best known for her role as Dr. Olivia Barber Winters on the American daytime drama The Young and the Restless from 1990 to 2005 and 2007 to 2012. She is the founder and executive director of Reelworld Film Festival.
The Inside Out Film and Video Festival, also known as the Inside Out LGBT or LGBTQ Film Festival, is an annual Canadian film festival, which presents a program of LGBT-related film. The festival is staged in both Toronto and Ottawa. Founded in 1991, the festival is now the largest of its kind in Canada. Deadline dubbed it "Canada’s foremost LGBTQ film festival."
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.
Clement Virgo is a Canadian film and television writer, producer and director who runs the production company, Conquering Lion Pictures, with producer Damon D'Oliveira. Virgo is best known for co-writing and directing an adaptation of the novel by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (2015), a six-part miniseries that aired on CBC Television in Canada and BET in the United States.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Peoples from around the world. The festival includes screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events.
Mateo Guez is a director, writer, photographer and producer. Born in Paris, France, he resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The National Screen Institute – Canada is a non-profit organization headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The organization describes itself as "Serving content creators across Canada to tell unforgettable stories through industry-informed training and mentoring."
Emmanuel Kabongo is a Canadian actor and producer. Born and raised in Zaire, now present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kabongo immigrated to Canada and began his acting career as an extra before achieving recognition for his performance as the lead protagonist in the acclaimed web series Teenagers (2014–2017), for which he earned his first Canadian Screen Award nomination.
The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film, formerly also known as the NFB John Spotton Award, is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian short film of the festival. As of 2017, the award is sponsored by International Watch Company and known as the "IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film".
Kathleen Hepburn is a Canadian screenwriter and film director. She first attracted acclaim for her film Never Steady, Never Still, which premiered as a short film in 2015 before being expanded into her feature film debut in 2017. The film received eight Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, including Best Picture and a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Hepburn.
Molly McGlynn is a Canadian-American film and television director and screenwriter. She is most noted for her feature film debut Mary Goes Round, for which she won the Jay Scott Prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association.
Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director.
Ervin Chartrand is a Canadian Métis/Ojibwe director, writer and producer. He is best known for directing the films 504938C (2005) and First Stories: Patrick Ross (2006).
Chase Joynt is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, video artist, actor, and professor. He attracted acclaim as co-director with Aisling Chin-Yee of the documentary film No Ordinary Man (2020), and as director of the film Framing Agnes (2022). He won two awards at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival for his work on the latter.
Hey Lady! is a Canadian comedy web series that is directed by Adriana Maggs, Will Bowes and Sarah Polley, and airs on CBC Gem. The series was created by playwright Morris Panych for Jayne Eastwood and is Eastwood's first leading role in her 50-year-long career. Eastwood portrays Lady, a wild and foul-mouthed woman in her 70s who is constantly getting into trouble with her friend Rosie.
Bite of a Mango is a 2022 Canadian drama/comedy film written by Joanne Jansen and Ron Dias and directed by Dias in his directorial debut. The film stars Jayne Kamara, Ryan Rosery, Orville Cummings, Nathan Taylor, and Shawna Stewart.
The Grizzlie Truth is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Kathleen Jayme and released in 2022. Following up on Jayme's 2018 film Finding Big Country, the film traces the history of the ill-fated Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association, attempting to trace the reasons for the team's relocation to Memphis.
Orah is a Canadian crime thriller film, written and directed by Lonzo Nzekwe, and released in 2023. The film stars Oyin Oladejo as Orah Madukaku, a Nigerian woman who moved to Canada as a refugee after intentionally killing a man in her youth. Getting involved in a money laundering scheme in the hopes of finally being able to bring her son to Canada, she runs afoul of ringleader Bami Hazar, who orders the murder of her son, sparking Orah to go on a revenge spree to settle the score.